.45 ACP with 616 ft lbs energy

This is a discussion on .45 ACP with 616 ft lbs energy within the Defensive Ammunition & Ballistics forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; Well I must say that I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this posting !! I'm new to this site and as I was browsing ...

.45ACP with 616 ft lbs

Well I must say that I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this posting !! I'm new to this site and as I was browsing I saw this and I said BINGO ! I had a .45 National Match and used to load my own . I also used 185 jhp and that was what I got for velocity (1225 fps) Most people wouldn't believe me. As for penetration I thought it was great ,also the expansion . Shooting into a hillside of moist dirt pile that was about 4 yrs old ,at 60 yds the penetration was around 7-8 ins. It would mushroom to a little over a nickle in size, with 95% weight retention. It's nice to know that others got the same results.

If I carried anything chambered in .45 I would avoid all 185 gr projectiles other than the barnes all copper bullets. Light for caliber loads (115gr 9mm, 135gr .40, 185gr .45) rarely come close to the performance of their heavier peers despite what dubious values like ft lbs energy may seem to suggest.

Having loaded and shot many different bullet/powder/velocity rounds through more than a few different .45acp guns, I have found any supersonic combinations have the following characteristics.
They are difficult to obtain using normal components in a safe manner.
They are hard on brass.
They are hard on the gun.
They are hard on the shooter.
They usually give less than good results.

So light bullets bounce off the skin and sting, and heavy bullets cause bruises and "hurt" more?

I don't think that's the best analogy.

I do like heavy bullets though - I'd rather have penetration than expansion, and light bullets just don't penetrate as well as heavy ones. Probably because of "science".

In any case - I wonder what the actual velocity is of the Doubletap 185 gr Nosler JHP load. There have been quite a few performance/claim irregularities once people started actually choronographing their ammo.

I picked up a box of these to try out. The recoil was nice, not harsh at all. They did throw out a nice fire ball, so that ups the fun factor a notch or two.
That trees going to be hard on my chainsaw in the spring time lol

It's the old bullet discussion of light and fast vs heavy and slow; for an everyday carry gun, I chose the .45acp for it's "big bullet". All the usual things considered, I've never had any good reason to carry anything lighter or smaller than the 230gr for self-defense purposes, and the gun seems to like it just fine.

Yes, that is correct. With FMJ you are going to get adequate penetration regardless of grain. Hollowpoints on the other hand can underpenetrate when a light projectile is driven to too high a velocity. I'd go 180 in .40. I carry 147gr in 9mm, but have no problems with 124 and 115 gr.

As long as you're anywhere in the vicinity of the Earth's surface, weight & mass are proportional, so there's no issue with using the terms interchangeably. Just have to use the proper unit conversion if you want to talk mass, but when was the last time you heard someone refer to units of mass when referring to a bullet?

Regards,
Jim NRA Life MemberCharter Member (#00002) of the DC .41 LC Society - "Get Heeled! No, really!"He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave. - Andrew Carnegie

as i understand it the faster something is moving the more mass it has and the more energy it carries, to paint a picture,
230g bullet@
1000fps=510f/lbs
1500fps=1148f/lbs
2000fps=2037f/lbs

as you can see mathing it up tells us that the faster you move an object, the more mass it has exponentially. as defined by einsteins famous E=MC2 ( energy= mass x speed of light squared )
even though the quanity of mass remains constent at 230g, relativistic mass increases the faster you go, 230g bullet traveling at the speed of light would have the energy equalivant of 4940.5 kilotons of TnT ( the two bombs dropped on japan combind equaled 38 kilotons)

so what we have learned today that velocity is more important then weight

you have to get the 9mm 115 grain up to 1400 fps (500.5f/lbs)to even come close to the 230g at 1000 fps (510 f/lbs)

now with all that in mind we look at real world balistics, and can make informed decision on our ammunition choices for the task at hand.
the faster you can get your bullet to travel the more energy it will hit with regardless of caliber, the choice you have to make is how hard you want your bullets to hit and work backward, determining what caliber you have to work with and how fast it has to go to get to the desired force.

I picked up a box of these to try out. The recoil was nice, not harsh at all. They did throw out a nice fire ball, so that ups the fun factor a notch or two.
That trees going to be hard on my chainsaw in the spring time lol

as i understand it the faster something is moving the more mass it has and the more energy it carries, to paint a picture,
230g bullet@
1000fps=510f/lbs
1500fps=1148f/lbs
2000fps=2037f/lbs

as you can see mathing it up tells us that the faster you move an object, the more mass it has exponentially. as defined by einsteins famous E=MC2 ( energy= mass x speed of light squared )
even though the quanity of mass remains constent at 230g, relativistic mass increases the faster you go, 230g bullet traveling at the speed of light would have the energy equalivant of 4940.5 kilotons of TnT ( the two bombs dropped on japan combind equaled 38 kilotons)

so what we have learned today that velocity is more important then weight

you have to get the 9mm 115 grain up to 1400 fps (500.5f/lbs)to even come close to the 230g at 1000 fps (510 f/lbs)

now with all that in mind we look at real world balistics, and can make informed decision on our ammunition choices for the task at hand.
the faster you can get your bullet to travel the more energy it will hit with regardless of caliber, the choice you have to make is how hard you want your bullets to hit and work backward, determining what caliber you have to work with and how fast it has to go to get to the desired force.

Regards,
Jim NRA Life MemberCharter Member (#00002) of the DC .41 LC Society - "Get Heeled! No, really!"He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave. - Andrew Carnegie